Unbelievable: Paulista FA bans fans from youth games over violence | OneFootball

Lower category matches will have no audience in Paulista (Photo: Divulgação/SPFC)

MARCIO MONTEIRO

@avantmtricolor

To what point will humanity reach? An unbelievable measure had to be taken by the São Paulo Football Federation (FPF), announced on the morning of this Friday (29).

All matches of rounds 16 and 17 of the Paulista Under-11 and Under-12 Championship, on August 31 and September 7, will be held with closed doors to the public.

This Sunday (31), São Paulo under-11 and under-12 will take the field at the Serra da Colina stadium, in matches against Votoraty, therefore, without the presence of fans.

The punishment, in an educational character, is a decision by the FPF on recommendation from the TJD-SP (Sports Justice Tribunal of São Paulo Football),due to the increasing number of cases of bad behavior by fans. The Federation informed the body of the severity and escalation of the occurrences and the Tribunal recommended the measure.

So far, the Paulista Under-11 and Under-12, which started in June, recorded 46 occurrences in the stands. Throughout the entire competition last year, there were 34 occurrences.The cases include offenses against children - such as racial slurs and homophobia crimes - fights, threats, and other acts of violence and hostility, mostly by parents and guardians of the children.

Among some cases that occurred this year, there was a fan trying to enter the stadium armed, throwing liquids at ball boys, a game stopped due to a shoe being thrown onto the field, a fight between fans that ended with a drunk woman falling in the stands, and even a bomb explosion among the crowd, mostly relatives and acquaintances of the children.

"This is an educational measure, reinforcing our commitment to place the integrity and development of children above any other interest. Football at this age should be synonymous with learning, coexistence, fun, and joy, and it is this standard of the stands that we will work to ensure. When fan actions threaten this environment, we need to act. Parents, educators, leaders: we need to be and set an example for the children", said Fábio Moraes, executive director of Competitions at FPF.

In December 2024, the FPF launched a special campaign aimed at the parents of children competing in state youth championships.

In the campaign video, the FPF simulated the aggressive behavior of some parents of children in matches of the youth categories of the Paulista Championship. In the piece, some parents are invited to read on a tablet phrases like “you can't get anything right, you dummy!”, supposedly said to children by teachers in classrooms.

However, at the end of the video, they discover that these are phrases collected in youth category games, said by parents and relatives of children.

"Why is it not allowed in school but allowed in football?", the campaign questions. The FPF uses the video in lectures, courses, and events related to athlete development.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.